A blog about the history, current state, and the future of the electric guitar and tube-based amplifier combo and how this de rigueur musical instrument that matured during the Rock N' Roll-era continues to both evolve and refuses to die.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Even though his work is largely devoted to energy efficient
UV lamps for zapping dangerous microbes, does Dr. Harvey c. Rentschler’s other
discoveries pave way for the post World War II electric guitar playing
revolution and Rock N’ Roll?

By: Ringo Bones

Unlike Albert Einstein, Dr. Harvey C. Rentschler never
became a household name for much of the 20th Century, and yet
without his important discoveries, contemporary popular music and electric
guitar playing after World War II would have been very different. And music
recording via mixing desk like those in the iconic Sun and Abbey Road studios
would never had existed without his discoveries and the world would also had
never heard of Elvis Presley or The Beatles without his discoveries that led to
the more efficient, smaller and cheaper thermionic vacuum tubes.

When he told his findings to a meeting of the American
Physical Society which was then published in the July 1943 issue of the
Scientific American magazine, Dr. Harvey C. Rentschler told the attendees about
what he had found out in experiments which he conducted eight years before. It
led him to conclude that atoms of gas – oxygen, hydrogen or nitrogen – actually
dissolve in the crystalline structure of some metals just as salt dissolves in
water. These gas particles then “loosen” the electrons in this structure,
causing them to be emitted from the metal more readily when heat is applied.
This explanation, according to Dr. Rentschler, should result in longer-lasting
thermionic vacuum tubes and accomplish important savings to the size and number
of batteries, generators and other apparatus needed to supply the filament
power.

Without discovering the then unknown principles that led to
the advanced thermionic vacuum tube design principles that led to smaller, more
energy efficient thermionic vacuum tubes by Dr. Rentschler, Rock N’ Roll would
never had existed and electric guitar playing would be a rather expensive hobby
dominated by large inefficient vacuum tubes and ultra-expensive gear the
average kid from the 1950s could never afford. Dr. Jim Marshall would probably
use something else entirely when he developed his now iconic Marshall Amplifier
back in 1962. Thanks to Dr. Harvey C. Rentschler, we have 12AX7 preamplifier
tubes that can operate with anode voltages as low as 45 volts DC – making the
now 48 Volt DC phantom power de rigueur in the modern post World War II
recording studio when Les Paul invented it.